Fitness program at Carriage Town Ministries allows homeless opportunity to do Flint-area road races

View full sizeJohn Ehlke | The Flint JournalMichael Merritt (left) of Swartz Creek and Don Schabel of Davison hold hands in prayer with other residents of the Carriage Town Ministry before the Great Pizza Challenge 5K.

FLINT, Michigan — He was earning a living as a cook in a coney island restaurant in Flint, had a roof over his head and once walked in the Crim Festival of Races.

Brian Hurry of Flint had a modest lifestyle, but never imagined he would end up homeless, living in a rescue mission.

The fateful twist in his life came one night two years ago when he returned home from work. Two armed robbers were waiting for him.

“They basically jumped out of the bushes, robbed me and beat me up,” Hurry said. “That wasn’t good enough — they had to shoot me in the back.”

Unable to work and stuck on a long waiting list for Social Security benefits, Hurry wound up at Carriage Town Ministries in Flint.

Carriage Town provides a safe haven for people like Hurry, but living in a homeless shelter doesn’t provide much opportunity to mingle with the outside world.

Hurry and five other residents of Carriage Town got a chance to line up at the same start line as 721 other runners and walkers Thursday night in the Great Pizza Challenge five-kilometer road race in downtown Flint.

Nic Gatlin won the race with a time of 16:37, but that wasn’t his greatest accomplishment on this evening. The Swartz Creek High graduate and former Division II All-American at Grand Valley State University began a running and walking program at Carriage Town last March. He said as many as 13 people who live at the mission participate in the Monday and Wednesday sessions. For some, the Pizza 5K was the first race in which they’d ever participated.

View full sizeJohn Ehlke | The Flint JournalBrian Hurry (front)f Flint walks to the start line with Carriage Town Ministries' John Knickerbocker (back left), Michael Merritt (back middle) of Swartz Creek and Don Schabel of Davsion before the Great Pizza Challenge 5K.

“It gets us out a little bit,” Carriage Town resident Mike Merritt of Swartz Creek said. “You see a little scenery or something different. It’s nice just to get out and see people.”

Hurry couldn’t run if he wanted to because of injuries sustained in the shooting. Walking was a bit painful Thursday, but a welcome change in his routine at the shelter.

“It gets me up and gets me moving,” said Hurry, 44, who finished in 52:02. “The more excess energy I can use up, the better.”

When Gatlin began the CTR Road Runners and Fitness Club, he wasn’t aware of a similar program that has had rave reviews on the East Coast. Anne Mahlum, whose downtown Philadelphia runs took her past a rescue mission, began Back on My Feet three years ago. The program has taken homeless people and turned them into half marathon finishers, plus helped them locate housing and employment.

It is now in five cities, with expansion to four more slated for 2011.

“My parents and family have been strong supporters of Carriage Town while I was growing up,” said Gatlin, who was hired this year as the ministry’s director of education and wellness.

“All of a sudden, I came up with this idea when I started working here. It’s another way to do what I love and to minister, to build confidence. A couple weeks after I started, somebody told me there’s this huge nonprofit organization that does exactly that. It’s funny how it kind of paralleled that.”

John Ehlke | The Flint JournalNic Gatlin sprints to the finish to win the Great Pizza 5K.

Homeless people are no different than the rest of society when it comes to running. Some love it, some never will.

“At first, there was excitement,” Gatlin said. “It was something new. They were excited to hang out with the new employee here. When they started to feel the demand of that type of exercise, it started to dwindle. A lot of these men and women have to get through their addiction to cigarettes. That doesn’t help their performance and exercise very well.

“A lot of these people are so sedentary. You can only imagine, scrounging for money, work and shelter — that’s their natural instinct. Putting on a pair of shorts and sneakers isn’t the most appealing thing.”

Long-time Crim group leader Dorie Barkey heard about the program during a post-run trip to Blackstone’s in downtown Flint. She had running gear she never used that had been given to her through the Crim training program. She donated those items to Gatlin’s group.

Gatlin is also getting the general public involved. For $100, participants will get entries into three Fiint-area races, a technical shirt and coaching advice from Gatlin, whose clients include Grand Blanc All-Stater Gabrielle Anzalone.

Anzalone, who won the women’s race in 18:02, ran in a CTR fitness group shirt. So did another high school All-Stater, Jeremy Dickie of Swartz Creek, who was second to Gatlin in 17:00.

“About the mile mark, I felt the woman who finished second behind me,” Anzalone said. “I picked it up a little bit. I had a bunch of friends who are guys who were encouraging me.”